[514:2] “Ad eam iterum traditionem, quae est ab apostolis, quae per successiones presbyterorum in ecclesiis custoditur, provocamus eos.”—­Irenaeus, iii. 2.

[514:3] Irenaeus here speaks in the language of his own times, and refers to the presidents, or senior ministers, of the presbyteries.  In like manner Hilary says that the change in the mode of appointing the president of the presbytery was made by the decision of many priests (multorum sacerdotum judicio), though the title priest was not given to a Christian minister when the alteration was originally proposed.

[514:4] Irenaeus, iii. 3.

[515:1] Period II. sec. i. chap. iv.; and Period II. sect. iii. chap. vii.

[515:2] According to a very ancient canon, no one under fifty years of age could be made a bishop.  See Bunsen’s “Hippolytus,” iii. 56.  Even in the time of Cyprian much stress was still laid upon age.  See Cyprian, Epist. lii. p. 156.

[515:3] Sec Period II. sect. iii. chap. xi.  See also Bingham, i. 198.

[515:4] Muenter’s “Primordia Ecclesiae Africanae,” p. 49.  See also Bingham, vi. 377-379.

[516:1] Bingham, i. 201.

[516:2] Binius, i. 5.  Fourth Council of Toledo, canon 4.

[516:3] Bingham, i. 204.

[517:1] Bunsen dates it about A.D. 200.  “Hippolytus and his Age,” p. 114.  The recently discovered treatise of Hippolytus against all heresies shews that Noetus must have appeared much earlier than most modern ecclesiastical historians have reckoned.

[517:2] Routh, “Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Opuscula,” tom. i. pp. 49, 50.  Oxon, 1858.  This extract proves that the Church of Smyrna continued under presbyterial government long after the time of Polycarp.  Other Churches about this time were in the same position.  See Eusebius, v. 16.

[518:1] During the Paschal controversy the Churches of Jerusalem, Caesarea, and others sided with Rome, and then probably adopted her ecclesiastical regimen.  It had, perhaps, been generally adopted in Asia Minor during the Montanist agitation.

[518:2] Chapter vii. of this section.

[519:1] The word catholic came now into use.  The minister of the Word was called a priest, and the communion table, an altar.

[519:2] Euseb. v. 12.

[519:3] Euseb. vi. 10.  The word [Greek:  cheirotonian] here employed is indicative of a popular choice.  See also the “Chronicon” of Eusebius.

[519:4] Muenter’s “Primordia Eccles.  Afric.,” pp. 25, 26.

[520:1] Acts x. 1, 45-48; xxi. 8.

[520:2] “Hist.” v. 22.

[520:3] “Hist.” v. 23; v. 25; vi. 19; vi. 23; vi. 46; vii. 14, &c, &c.

[520:4] “Annal.” p. 332.

[520:5] See Lardner’s Works, vii. 99.  Edit.  London, 1838.

[521:1] Eusebius, vi. 26.  Towards the close of his episcopate Demetrius held several synods in Alexandria, at which a considerable number of bishops were present.